Palestine, the Caliph and Gandhi: A Non-violent Jihad

Panter-Brick Simone

Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) is known for his political work in India and his weapon of non-violence. The demand for Indian independence dates from 1920 and springs from two coincidental causes: the agitation against the Rowlatt Act in India in 1918 and the fight to safeguard the temporal power of the Ottoman Sultan in Palestine at the end of World War 1. Gandhi was then involved in a non-violent jihad on behalf of the Ottoman Caliph to maintain Muslim rule over Palestine from 1918 to 1924. The movement became known as ‘non-cooperation’ and soon evolved into the first all-India satyagraha campaign for the independence of India. The campaign failed, the Caliphate collapsed, Gandhi’s first incursion into the affairs of Palestine ended, but the non-violent jihad and its development raised Gandhi from a relative non-entity in Indian politics to the status of the most powerful personality in his country, second only to the Viceroy in India.

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